May 11, 2021 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 11.05.2021, 20:20

ATTACK At least 9 people have been killed and over 20 wounded by a man
who opened fire in a school in the Russian city of Kazan, 820 kilometers east
of Moscow. The city is the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, which has a
Muslim majority. The 19 year old assailant is a former student of the aforementioned
school and he is the legal owner of the weapon used in the massacre. On Tuesday
President Putin ordered the laws regulating gun possession in Russia be
revised. Such attacks are rare in the Russian Federation though. A similar
attack took place in annexed Crimea in 2018, when a student killed 18
colleagues before turning the gun on himself. In September 2004, about 325
people, mostly children were killed after the special forces stormed a school
in Beslan, the North Osettia, which had been occupied by pro-Chechen
mercenaries, who took over 1000 hostages.

REPORTS Parliament in Bucharest on Tuesday rejected
the activity reports submitted by the public radio and television for the years
2017, 2018 and 2019. According to Anca Dragu, president of the Senate, the
rejection of the aforementioned reports entails the sacking of the two institutions’
board of directors. Parliament is to nominate interim directors for the two
aforementioned institutions with 6-month tenures.

VIRUS 1156 new SARS-CoV-2 infections have been
reported in Romania in the past 24 hours out of 36 thousand tests carried out,
the Strategic Communication Group (GCS) announced on Tuesday. According to the
same sources, 101 of those infected died bringing the death toll to 29,135.
Since the onset of the pandemic, 190 Romanian citizens who live abroad have
been killed by the virus. 6181 patients are being treated in hospitals around
the country, out of which 919 in intensive care. Since the onset of the
pandemic, over one million Romanians have been infected with the novel coronavirus
and over 90% have been cured. Also on Tuesday, GCS announced that Bucharest and
Cluj in the country’s northwest are presently out of the so-called yellow zone
in terms of the number of infections like all the other counties with a rate of
1.5 cases per thousand. The vaccine rollout carries on at a higher pace with
more than 100 thousand people vaccinated per day. Authorities have stepped up the
rollout through a series of measures, such as vaccination marathons and drive
throughs. Family physicians have actively got involved in the vaccination campaign.
Coordinator Valeriu Gheorghita said
on the other hand that there is not enough scientific data to confirm the need
for a third vaccine dose to cover possible viral mutations.

ALERT The state of alert was extended by another
month as of Thursday, the government of Romania decided. Certain restrictions
have been lifted, such as the ones concerning participation in religious processions
or pilgrimages, while others, including in the hospitality sector, remain in
place. Pilot cultural and sports events will be organised, attended by people
who have got the vaccine or recovered from COVID in the past 3 months, as well
as those who test negative for the disease.

DRILL The president of Romania Klaus Iohannis and his
Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda on Tuesday attended a multinational military
exercise in Galaţi County in the east. The exercise takes place at the Smârdan
base, and Poland takes part with the military forces it has deployed to Romania
as part of the Allied matched forward presence in the eastern flank through the
NATO multinational brigade stationed in Craiova. Justice Sword 21
is a tactical exercise aimed at testing the capacity of participating structures
to implement planned actions and measures, as well as Romania’s ability to
provide support to the military forces and equipment that transit its
territory. Such exercises are extremely important to check and increase the
interoperability degree. We are training for defence in the Eastern Flank,
Romanian president Klaus Iohannis said on this occasion. In turn, his Polish
counterpart Andrzej Duda has underlined the importance of cooperation between
the Romanian and Polish troops. In another development, the Romanian president
sent a letter to Parliament in Bucharest briefing it on the Romanian forces
participation in the NATO extended mission in Iraq starting with the second
half of 2021.

(bill)